Masonry wall construction.



G. A. LEONARD.

MASONRY WALL CONSTRUCTION.

APPLICATION FILED 'ocT. 4. 1915.

1,23%,41 TA Patented Jan. 22,1918.

GEORGE A. LEONARD, OF SHEFFIELD, IOWA.

MASONRY WALL CONSTRUCTION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan, 22, 1915'.

Application filed October 4, 1915. Serial No. 54,085.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Gnonon A. LEONARD, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Shefiield, in the county of Franklin and State of Iowa, have invented a certain new and useful Masonry Wall Construction, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of masonry wall constructions ordinarily employed in the construction of silos, water tanks and the like, and which class consists of the kind of silos, water tanks, etc., in which the walls are made substantially circular out of relatively thin concrete blocks laid up without mortar between the joints and held in place by encircling hoops or hands, and which after construction are made water and air tight by means of a thin layer of water-proofing material applied on the interior of the wall.

My objects are to provide a masonry wall structure of this class of simple, durable and inexpensive construction, in which the concrete blocks are made by what is known as the semi-dry mix process, and in which the various blocks are substantially of uniform size and shape, and to provide build ing blocks of this kind in which the upper and lower edges of the blocks are irregular in outline and are designed to fit one into the other with the vertical joints between the blocks staggered between the various horizontal rows so that by reason of the shape of the upper and lower edges of the blocks alone, they must be fitted together in a reg ular and uniform manner, and the strength of the blocks themselves will aid materially in preventing any movement of the blocks relative to each other.

A further object is to provide a building structure of this kind with metal reinforcing rods which are embedded in the blocks themselves, said rods being made in sections of substantially the same lengths as the blocks in which they are contained, and so arranged that after the blocks are fitted together in the manner mentioned the adjacent ends of the reinforcing rods may be firmly and permanently connected and sealed in position by concrete.

More specifically it is my object to combine the building blocks having irregular upper and lower edges to fit into each other with reinforcing rods embedded therein, which reinforcing rods are capable of slight longitudinal movement, so that in fitting together a circular row of building blocks and the various sectional reinforcing rods in them the individual rods may be adjusted longitudinally to a slight extent as required for ease and convenience in applying the means for connecting the adjacent ends of the rods together, and also for the purpose of connecting together the various reinforc ing rods throughout the circular row of blocks in such a manner that the tension applied to the various rods throughout the circular row will be uniform so that during contraction and expansion of the structure the blocks may move sli htly relative to the rods to thereby avoid undue or unequal con traction or expansion of either the rods or the blocks at any one point throughout the circular row, thereby preventing the possibility of causing blocks to separate at any one point suficiently to crack the layer of water-proofing material on the inner surface thereof.

My invention consists in the combination of the building blocks having irregular upper and lower surfaces and the sectional rodscmbedded therein and capable of limited longitudinal movement, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully setforth, pointed out in my claim, and illustrated in the accompany ing drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows an inner face view of a number of concrete blocks provided with re inforcing rods and connecting means for them embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 shows a horizontal sectional view, taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 8 shows an edge view of one of the building blocks, the dotted lines therein be- .ing used to show the rotary movement of the reinforcing rod required to break the bond between the rod and the concrete, and

Fig. shows a horizontal, sectional view through one of the blocks embodying my invention, the dotted lilies therein being used to illustrate the longitudinal movement of the reinforcing rod.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, I have used the reference numeral 10 to indicate the body portion of one of my improved building blocks. The upper and lower edges of the bloc]; are tapered from. the vertical edges toward the vertical center of the block and in a direction toward the horizontal center. The blocks are also preferably provided on all edges with oowhereby when fitted together in a wall, as

illustrated in Fig. 1, the meeting edges of the various blocks will fit close enough together to avoid the necessity of having mortar or cement placed in the joints between I the blocks.

In order to reinforce the various hori- .'zontal rows of blocks, I provide in each block the straight, round reinforcing rod 14:, having its ends 15 bent at right angles and projected inwardly into the recesses 13. These rods after their ends have been bent, as'stated, are of less length than the blocks, so that when two blocks provided with rods are placed together as shown in Fig. 1, these ends 15 will stand approximately parallel with each other an slightly spaced apart. After the blocks are thus assembled, the rods are connected by means of suitable links inserted in the recesses 13 and hooked over the projecting ends 15. In the illustration I have shown hooks 16 for this purpose,

Rvhich hooks are substantially S-shaped.

The books 16 and the ends 1.5 of the rods 14 are so constructed and are made of such material that after being put together as shown in Fig. 1 they may be bent in such manner as to apply tension to the rods for drawing them together. This obviously can be done either by bending the hooks to draw the adjacent ends of the rods together or by bending the ends 15 of the rods inwardly toward the centers of their respective blocks.

In constructing my improved building blocks the rods 14 are placed in the molds during the time that they are being filled and tamped or pressed, and the blocks are allowed to set and dry before being used in a building structure.

I have found that by employing straight, round rods in blocks of this kind made by the semi-dry mix process, the bond between the blocks and the rods after they have set and dried may be broken with comparative case. For instance this may be done by grasping the projecting ends 15 of the rods and twisting them in such a man ner as to rotate the rods, or these ends may be tapped with a hammer and the bond may be broken in this manner. After the bond has once been broken, then obviously the rod may have a limited longitudinal movement relative to theblock, as illustrated by dotted lines in Figs. 2 and 4.-.

It is obvious that if the part of the rod amongall the various blocks in acireular' that is embedded in the concrete were not straight, then it would be impossible to provide any longitudinal movement for it. Furthermore,- if the blocks are made by whatknown as the wet mix process the bond between the rods and blocks would be such that it could not readily be broken without danger of breaking the block itself. In practical use it is obvious that in order to lay up a wall WltllOHhIIlOlilitl' joints, andin which the cracks between the various blockswill be so smallas tobe unobjection ableand capable of being-made water'and air tight by means-of a thin'wash of water usually placed in position and the tension is applied to the rods by'bending either the hooks or the ends of the rods, as above described. It is obvious thatit' is impossible for an operator to apply exactly the same amount of tension to all of the connections between these rods in a horizontal row. Therefore if the rods were immovable in the blocks, the tension of the rods between some ofthe blocks would be a great dealmore than the tension applied to the connections between the rods of other blocks throughout the same row, hencewhen pressurewas apphed to the horizontal row'of blocks from the interior, some of the joints between the rods would be weaker'than others and the weaker ones would give way first and cause the block to separate at the weakest point or the point where the least amount of tension was applied. WVith my improvement, however, the rods are all firmly connected with each other but after they are all firmly connected tension may be applied to any one of the connections between the rods and this tension will then be equally distributed throughout the entire circumferenceof the united rods in the circular building structure, due to the fact that the rods are capable of slight longitudinal movement. As

a result of this arrangement, when pressure is applied to the interior of a wall, the strains are equally divided upon all the blocks in a horizontal row and if there is any outward movement it will be distributed equally throughout all of the blocks. In

practical use I have foundthat where this outward movement is equally distributed 7 After a horizontal row of blocks is laid, then the'hooks or links 16 are structure, such as a silo, the amount of movement between any two blocks is insufiicient to cause a cracking ofthe layer of waterproofing material on the interior of the silo, whereas in cases where the sectional rods are firmly fixed in their respective blocks and afterward connected, the tension on some of the connected rods is necessarily greater than on others, and during expansion the entire outward movement applied to a horizontal row of blocks usually occurs at the point where the tension on the connected rods is the least, hence the blocks at this point will separate appreciably or enough to form a crack that will leak and thus spoil the ensilage contained in the silo, or permit the water to leak out if the structure is a water tank.

There is an advantage in having the ends of the rods bent inwardly at right angles, because the bond between the rods and the blocks can. be broken most readily by applying a rotary movement to the rod, and these inwardly turned ends are advantageous in applying this rotary movement by a wrench, a hammer or the like.

It is obvious that the advantageous result of my invention can be attained only by the combination of building blocks having irregular upper and lower edges with sectional reinforcing rods embedded in the building blocks and capable of limited longitudinal movement, for if the building blocks had smooth straight upper and lower edges, then they themselves could move longitudinally, and tension applied to any of the connections between the rods throughout the entire horizontal row would be distributed evenly throughout the entire row, and it is only in building structures where this longitudinal movement of the building blocks throughout the horizontal row is prevented that it is of material advantage to provide sectional reinforcing rods that are capable of movement within the blocks to equalize the tension throughout the entire horizontal row.

I claim as my invention:

In a device of the class described, a wall construction comprising a plurality of horizontal courses of block arranged in vertical succession with the blocks of each course staggered relative to the blocks of the adjacent course,- each block having a rod slidably extended therethrough, said rods having hooks formed at each end, means for securing said hooks together between the blocks whereby a plurality of reinforcing rods may be formed in the wall, each of which rods extend throughout one course of blocks and is under normal tension throughout its length.

Des Moines, Iowa, May 25, 1915.

GEORGE A. LEONARD.

Witnesses:

H. L. OARHART, R. R. CARHART.

hamlet at this patent y be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the costumer or retreats,

Washington, D. C. 

